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Train your brain for better decisions, problem solving, and innovation.Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills is the comprehensive guide to training your brain to do more for you. Written by a critical thinking trainer and coach, the book presents a pragmatic set of tools to apply critical thinking techniques to everyday business issues. Think Smarter is filled with real world examples that demonstrate how the tools work in action, in addition to dozens of practice exercises applicable across industries and functions, Think Smarter is a versatile resource for individuals, managers, students, and corporate training programs.Thinking is the foundation of everything you do, but we rely largely on automatic thinking to process information, often resulting in misunderstandings and errors. Shifting over to critical thinking means thinking purposefully using a framework and tool set, enabling thought processes that lead to better decisions, faster problem solving, and creative innovation. Think Smarter provides clear, actionable steps toward improving your critical thinking skills, plus exercises that clarify complex concepts by putting theory into practice. Features include: + A comprehensive critical thinking framework + Over twenty five tools to help you think more critically + Critical thinking implementation for functions and activities + Examples of the real world use of each tool Learn what questions to ask, how to uncover the real problem to solve, and mistakes to avoid. Recognize assumptions your can rely on versus those without merit, and train your brain to tick through your mental toolbox to arrive at more innovative solutions. Critical thinking is the top skill on the wish list in the business world, and sharpening your ability can have profound affects throughout all facets of life. Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills provides a road map to more effective and productive thought.
think smarter ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:10 AM ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:10 AM think smarter Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills Michael Kallet ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:10 AM Cover image: ©tumpikuja/iStockphoto Cover design: Michael J Freeland Copyright © 2014 by Mike Kallet All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation You should consult with a professional where appropriate Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002 Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://book support.wiley.com For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Kallet, Mike, 1953 Think smarter : critical thinking to improve problem-solving and decision-making skills / Mike Kallet p cm ISBN 978-1-118-72983-0 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-86435-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-87125-6 (ebk) 1. Problem solving. 2. Decision making. 3. Critical thinking. I. Title HD30.29.K35 2014 658.4'03—dc23 2013044790 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:10 AM To my dad, Sidney Kallet, who thought, and thought well ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:11 AM ffirs.indd 2/21/2014 9:28:11 AM Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii Section I Introduction and the Framework for Critical Thinking 1 What Is Critical Thinking? When to Use Critical Thinking The Framework and Tools Section 10 16 II Clarity 21 Empty Your Bucket 23 Inspection 28 vii ftoc.indd 2/21/2014 9:33:15 AM viii Contents Why? 33 So What? 43 Need 50 Anticipatory Thinking 57 10 What Else? 62 11 The Ingredient Diagram 65 12 Vision 71 13 The Thinking Coach 74 14 Summary of Clarity 79 Section III Conclusions 83 15 It’s All about the Premise 85 16 Facts90 17 Observations94 18 Experiences99 ftoc.indd 2/21/2014 9:33:15 AM 204 Critical Thinking: Summary and Suggestions A note to executives: You have the ability to lead and see to it that members of your organization use critical thinking There’s only one thing you must to make that happen: you’ll have to make it necessary Insist that presentations include the thinking that went into the conclusion Use critical thinking in your staff meetings See to it that critical thinking steps are part of people’s goals Integrate critical thinking into your key processes (Note: If people must follow a process, and critical thinking is a part of it, then it is necessary for them to use critical thinking.) Become a critical thinking organization Your people’s enhanced performance will be a game changer for you and your company A note to supervisors, managers, and directors: You can affect your organization the most by using critical thinking Be a thinking coach for your reports, and ask so what once a day to get people to think Use critical thinking for your own problem solving and decision making Present your ideas to upper management, using critical thinking tools Influence senior management with well-thought-out premises Create innovative solutions with your team using critical thinking Your leadership will grow and shine A note to individual contributors: Improving your own problem-solving and decision-making skills will result in improved performance You’ll be able to make better recommendations; you’ll be more productive; and your quality of work will go up Use critical thinking with your peers Be clear with your manager, and ask why Remember that you may need to educate your manager as to why you are asking why Critical thinking will aid your career goal, whether it’s to become a manager and leader, take on more responsibilities, or simply perform your job better Critical Thinking—Let’s Begin Start by emptying your bucket to get your head in the right place Consider the following suggestions: • Suggestion 1: Start critical thinking practice with inspection and writing e-mails Not only is this easy and good practice, but there’s also an important side advantage Write your e-mail; then before you hit Send, ask, “Is what I’m about to send clear? Could the recipient misinterpret c35.indd 204 2/21/2014 7:59:46 AM Critical Thinking: Summary and Suggestions 205 what I’ve written?” You’ll reap three benefits from this First, you’ll find your e-mails are shorter, because clarity often takes fewer words Second, your thoughts will be clearer and better organized Third, and most important, your e-mails will be more easily understood, resulting in potentially huge productivity gains What happens if you send an unclear e-mail to someone? The recipient will respond with a question, which you’ll then have to answer The result is three e-mails generated instead of one Consider how many e-mails would be sent around if you copied five people on an unclear e-mail Even worse, what happens if you send an unclear e-mail out, and instead of asking questions, people just start to their own interpretations of your e-mail? Imagine the productivity gains from inspecting just three important e-mails a day • Suggestion 2: Continue using critical thinking on small tasks and headscratchers: ◆◆ E-mails: Use inspection; perhaps ask why ◆◆ Meeting invites: Ask about need and why regarding meeting invitations ◆◆ Requirements: Inspect requirements and ask why they are required Why are they necessary? ◆◆ Priorities: When setting priorities, ask for need and so what • Suggestion 3: Record your responses When you ask yourself why, so what, or about need, or while you inspect, write down your responses Have you ever had an idea you thought was clear but was difficult to write down? You are forced to organize your thoughts clearly when you write things down • Suggestion 4: When you’re looking for solutions, and you think you have a good idea, ask, “What assumptions am I making?” and “Why am I making those assumptions?” • Suggestion 5: Avoid spending more than hours in a critical thinking session, no matter how complex the headscratcher—simply because it’s tiring to think this way Also, let your brain some work for you in the background Do a little critical thinking, then go work out or go to c35.indd 205 2/21/2014 7:59:46 AM 206 Critical Thinking: Summary and Suggestions sleep and resume the next morning Things will be clearer, or at least you’ll have more ideas about how to tackle the problem • Suggestion 6: If you have only 10 minutes to think critically, ask the following: ◆◆ Am I clear on the situation? ◆◆ What assumptions can I make, and what facts, observations, and experiences am I using for those assumptions? ◆◆ When concluding, ask, “How did I get to that conclusion?” ◆◆ What criteria will be used to decide go or no-go? • Suggestion 7: If you can, think critically with someone else Asking each other questions and listening to responses will stimulate new questions and ideas You can think critically by yourself, so long as you are disciplined enough to answer the hard questions • Suggestion 8: One of the best ways to practice critical thinking is to be a thinking coach As a thinking coach, you’ll ask questions, listen to responses, and ask more questions Remember those questions, and use them when you’re the one who needs critical thinking • Suggestion 9: Before implementing critical thinking in your work, talk it over with your manager so that he or she knows why you are asking so many questions • Suggestion 10: Understand your need to think critically As you learned in Chapter 8, “Need,” if you want a problem solved, it is really beneficial to understand why a solution is necessary It’s the same for implementing critical thinking It requires work, so if you don’t have a need to think critically, why would you? Why did you read this book? What motivated you to so? Why you want to improve your problem-solving and decision-making skills? Are you looking for more responsibility or to be a more effective leader? Understand why; then understand why it’s necessary It might be a personal goal, a company goal, or your manager’s goal Make a personal commitment to try some of these strategies You’ll like the result and want more c35.indd 206 2/21/2014 7:59:46 AM Critical Thinking: Summary and Suggestions 207 The Takeaway Thinking smarter is about using your brain more intelligently Critical thinking is an enabling tool set for smarter problem solving, decision making, and creativity It isn’t hard, but critical thinking takes practice and discipline Practice with the small stuff, and then apply it to headscratchers that matter c35.indd 207 2/21/2014 7:59:46 AM c35.indd 208 2/21/2014 7:59:46 AM About the Author I n 2004, Michael Kallet founded HeadScratchers (www.headscratchers com), a company focused on training critical thinking for problem solving, decision making, and creativity Its mission is to help people become better headscratchers Before forming HeadScratchers, Mike was a technology and operations executive with 25 years of experience in leading teams that created numerous award-winning products and services spanning computer and communications technologies and markets He has a bachelor of science degree in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute 209 babout.indd 209 2/21/2014 9:21:56 AM babout.indd 210 2/21/2014 9:21:56 AM Index Dot puzzle, 160, 172 A Abductive Thinking, 164–171 checkerboard illusion, 165 exercises, 171 getting started, 170 old dog, 166 Takeaway, 171 Absolute truths, 86, 90, 93, 100–101 Absorption capability, 192, 195, 197 Accuracy, 195–196 Agreement, 124, 150, 153 Always a way, 24–26 Ambiguity, 30–32 Anaya, Ivan Fernandex, 104 Answer, 51, 82 I don’t know, 39 knowledge, 33, 41 perspectives, 137 Thinking Coach, 74–78 Think Outside the Box, 160 Triangular Thinking, 136–140 Why?, 36 Anticipatory Thinking, 57–61 exercises, 61 getting started, 60 a miss, 63 Takeaway, 61 what’s next?, 59 Applications, 58, 68, 77 Approval, 153, 181–182, 187 ASAP, 183 Assumptions, 110–113 automatic mode, 110, 112 bad, 119 conversation, 127 critical thinking mode, 110 invalidate, 39, 112, 118, 150–151 Takeaway, 113 validated, 145 Automatic mode, 5–6, 8, 19, 62, 88, 110, 112, 124 Automatic thinking, 1, 4, 19, 84, 108, 120 B Bacon, Sir Francis, 33 Because!!, 34, 39–41 Beliefs, 89, 107–109, 121–122 change, 107 different, 107 filter, 105, 114 ideological, 109 Takeaway, 109 values, 104–105 Benefits, xv, 1–2, 7, 9–11, 79, 196–197, 205 Better mousetrap, 155 Biases, Boeing, 59 Boundaries: beyond, 172 box, 159, 161 knowledge, 39 outside, 161 211 bindex.indd 211 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM 212 Box: boundaries, 161 inside, 161 outside, 155–156, 159–163 premise, 161 Triangular Thinking, 138–139 Brain: changes things, 166 hides information, makes things up, 6, 99 throws things out, 5–6, 99 Bucket, 23–27, 99–100, 204 empty, 23–26, 100 exercises, 26 filled, 23, 108 getting started, 25 Takeaway, 26 Business problem solving, xiii C Change, 141–146 acknowledge, 145 exercises, 145 getting started, 144 helping people accept, 143 Takeaway 145 Checklist: decision criteria, 187 decision maker’s, 180 Clarity, 16–17, 19–82 am I done?, 81 getting started, 79 practice, 80 summary, 79 Takeaway, 82 Clear HeadScratcher, 17, 120 Components, weight, 120 Conclusions, 17, 83–154 Assumptions, 110–113 Beliefs, 104–109 exercises, 126 Experiences, 99–103 Facts, 90–93 getting started, 124, 176 bindex.indd 212 Index jumping to, 119 Observations, 94–98 personalities, 120 premise, 85–89, 114 putting it together, 114–127 right, 121 summary, 176–177 Takeaway, 126 Conclusions and Innovation, 155–175 Abductive Thinking, 164–171 Impossible Thinking, 172–175 Outside-the-Box, 159–163 world of, 156 Confidence, 87–88, 117, 122 change, 141–143 less, 126, 141–142, 153 persuade, 151, 153 stronger premise, 89, 117, 130 triangular thinking, 138, 140 Confusion, 29–30 Consequences, 47–48, 57, 63 Consistency 132–135 exercises, 135 getting started, 134 Takeaway, 135 Constraints, 23, 40, 173 Context recognition, Controllability, 191, 193, 195, 197 Conversation, 25–26, 33 assumptions, 122, 125 decision, 187 impossible, 172 need, 52, 54, 56 observations, 95 premise, 123–124 risk, 201 so what?, 44 upside-versus-downside, 189 vision, 71 what else?, 62 Cooperation, 54 Counter observation, 150 Creating Solutions, 176–177 Creativity, xi, 23, 207, 209 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM Index 213 Credibility, 128–131, 148, 176 exercises, 131 getting started, 130 lose, 129 Takeaway, 130 Criteria, 186–188 decision maker’s, 187 exercises, 188 getting started, 187 Takeaway, 188 Critical Thinking: application: list of business functions, 11 list of business issues and goals, 12 list of day-to-day activities, 14 benefits, definition, process, 9, 16, 33, 74, 81–82, 176 when to use, 10 Cube, 137–138 Customer calls, 8, 47, 87, 111, 115, 134 Customers, 21, 37, 45, 58–59, 134, 144 D Dates, 97, 183–184, 186, 201 Decision maker, xiii, 179, 182–187, 198, 200–201 Decisions, 82, 179–202 act, 17, 28, 131, 179, 188 Criteria See Criteria getting started, 201 Risk See Risk skills, summary, 200–202 time-dependent, 183 time-independent, 183 Who-Need-When See Who-Need-When Deductive reasoning, 85–86, 90 Disagree, 106–108, 147, 153 Downside, 191 E E-mails, 15, 25, 30, 80, 204–205 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 155 bindex.indd 213 Empty Your Bucket See Bucket Error, xiii, 125, 144 Estimates, 136–139 high-confidence, 138, 140 Executives, 204 Exercises: Abductive Thinking, 171 Anticipatory Thinking, 61 Change, 145 Conclusions, 126 Consistency, 135 Credibility, 131 Criteria, 188 Empty your bucket, 26 Facts, Observations, and Experiences, 101 Facts and Observations, 97 Impossible Thinking, 175 Influence and Persuasion, 154 Ingredient Diagram, 70 Inspection, 31 Need, 55 Outside-the-Box, 163 Risk, 199 So What?, 49 Thinking Coach, 78 Triangular Thinking, 140 Vision, 73 What Else?, 64 Who, When, and Need, 185 Why?, 42 Experiences, 99–103 bucket, 23 Takeaway, 101 F Facts, 90–93 absolute truth, 90 Credibility, 129 Takeaway, 93 Filter, 105, 114 Focus, 18, 23, 31, 54, 69, 73, 143, 149 Foundation, xiii, 88–89, 114, 157 Framework, 2, 7, 9, 16, 20 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM 214 G Getting Started: Abductive Thinking, 170 Anticipatory Thinking, 60 Change, 144 Clarity, 79 Conclusions, 124, 176 Consistency, 134 Creditibility, 130 Criteria, 187 Decisions, 201 Emptying your bucket, 25 Impossible Thinking, 174 Influencing and Persuading, 151 Ingredient Diagram, 69 Inspection, 30 Need, 54 Outside-the-Box, 162 Risk, 198 So What?, 46 Thinking Coach, 77 Triangular Thinking, 139 Vision, 72 What Else?, 63 Who, Need, and When, 184 Why?, 40 Goal, 1, 12, 79, 177 of HeadScratchers, LLC, xii Impossible, 173 manager’s, 206 personal, 55, 206 setting, 15, 30, 40 of a team, 52 of Think Smarter, xi Thinking Coach, 74, 76 Group, 28–29, 31, 44, 54, 69 Guess: Abductive Thinking, 166–167, 170–171 educated, 164 H Headscratcher, 1, 10, 16–17, 21, 36 Headscratchers, better, xii, 209 HeadScratchers, LLC, xii–xiii bindex.indd 214 Index www.headscratchers.com 209 Headscratching, 3, 41 I Ideas: Abduction, 171 Disagree, 125 Ingredient Diagram, 65 Innovation, 157 a jump, 120 necessary, 51 Thinking Coach, 74 What else?, 64 Impossible conversations, 172 Impossible thinking, 172–175 exercises, 175 getting started, 174 Takeaway, 175 Inductive reasoning, 85–90, 120–121, 155, 159, 165–168, 171, 176 Influencing and Persuading, 147–154 difference, 147 exercises, 154 getting started, 151 premise to influence, 149 premise to persuade, 149 senior management, 147 Takeaway, 153 Information, 5–6, 8, 95, 120 conflicting, 132, 138 credible, 130 Ingredient Diagram, 65–70 exercises, 70 getting started, 69 productivity example, 68 Takeaway, 70 Ingredients, headscratcher’s, 66 Innovation See Conclusions and Innovation Inspection, 28–31, 63, 71, 75, 204 e-mail, 30, 205 exercises, 31–32 getting started, 30 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM Index 215 goal setting, 30 meetings, 30, 80 Takeaway, 31 K Kallet, Michael, 209 Knowledge, 145 Abduction, 164, 167 Consistency, 129 ignorance, 19 is power, 164 Why?, 33 L Learning, 6, 145 M Meetings, 14, 25, 30, 33, 41–42, 46–47, 61, 80 Memories, 23–25 Metrics, 194 Misinformation, 129–130 Mitigation strategy, 193 Mutai, Abel, 104 N Necessity See Need Need, 50–56, 173, 183, 193, 195 exercises, 55 getting started, 54 great teams, 52 survival, 53 Takeaway, 55 No-brainer, 169–170 O Observations, 94–98 additional, 112, 143, 145 contradictory, 118 Credibility, 129, 150 missing, 123 Takeaway, 96 weighted, 150 Outcome, 10, 87–88 bad, 191, 194 bindex.indd 215 Outside-the-box, 159–163, 174 dot puzzle, 160 exercises, 163 getting started, 162 Takeaway, 163 What if? and What other?, 161 P Partiality, 3, 6–7 Pattern recognition, 4–5 Personalities See Conclusions Perspectives, 8, 23, 60, 109, 139 Persuading See Influencing and Persuading Plato, 50, 85 Prediction, 93, 194 Preeminent Metrics, 194 Prejudices, 7, 105–106 Premise, 84, 85–90, 93, 96, 101, 109, 114, 117–123, 125–130 Assumptions, 110–113 Change, 141 components, 84 Consistent, 132 Credible, 128 Deduction, 85 inconsistency, 132–133 Induction, 86 Influence, 149 Persuade, 149 weaker, 118, 120, 132, 150 well-thought-out, 204 Probability, 81, 122, 189 Probability of downside, 191, 194, 196 Problem: right, 55 strategic, xiv technical, 169 unclear, 18 wrong, 19, 21, 83 Problem solving, 16, 55, 72, 81, 176–177, 204, 207 improving, xi speeds up, 19 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM 216 Process, 7, 18 Puzzle, dot, 160–161 Q Quality problem solving, xiii, 19–20, 28 R Ramifications, 47 Reasoning See Deductive reasoning; Inductive reasoning Reconcile disagreements, 106, 108–109, 122–123 Reversibility, 193 Risk, 189–199 evaluating, 190–191, 198 example, 194–196 exercises, 199 Factors, 190 Absorption capability, 192 Controllability, 193 Downside, 191 Ignoring statistical downside, 192 Mitigation strategy, 193 Necessity of the upside, 193 Preeminent Metrics, 194 Probability of downside, 191 Probability of the upside, 192 Reversibility, 193 Upside, 192 getting started, 198 Takeaway, 198 Role of Thinking Coach, 74 Root cause, 34, 37–38 triangulate, 139 Rules: Beliefs, 106 done with clarity, 81 Facts, 91 Thinking Coach, 76 when to use Critical Thinking, 10 S So What?, 43–49 exercises, 49 bindex.indd 216 Index getting started, 46 lessons learned, 48 Takeaway, 48 your company, 45 your product, 45 your so what, 45–46 Socrates, 85 Solutions, 7–8, 16–17, 19 See also Conclusions best, 122 higher-quality, xi innovative, 7, 26, 176, 204 Outside-The-Box, 155, 162 paradigm-changing, 155 Statement, initial, 86–89 Strength of premise, 143, 153 See also Premise Suggestions, 203–206 Critical Thinking, 204 executives, 204 individual contributors, 204 supervisors, managers, directors, 204 Summary of Clarity, 79 Summary of Conclusions, 176 Summary of Decisions, 200 Survival, 53–54 T The Takeaway: Abductive thinking, 171 Anticipatory thinking, 61 Assumptions, 113 Beliefs, 109 Change, 145 Clarity, 22, 82 Consistency, 135 Credibility, 130 Criteria, 188 Critical Thinking, Decision maker, 184 Empty bucket, 26 Experiences, 101 Facts, 93 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM Index 217 Impossible thinking, 175 Inductive reasoning, 89 Influence and Persuasion, 153 Ingredients, 70 Inspection, 31 Need, 55 Observations, 96 Outside-the-box, 163 Premise, 126 Risk, 198 So What?, 48 Thinking Coach, 77 Thinking Smarter, 207 Triangular Thinking, 140 Vision, 73 What Else?, 64 when to use, 15 Why?, 41 Because!!, 40 I don’t know, 39 Root cause, 38 This versus That, 36 Team: great, 52 problem-solving, 76 Techniques, xi, xiii, 6, 20, 28, 125, 149, 156, 176, 203 Critical Thinking See Contents Think Smarter Takeaway, 207 Thinking Coach, 74–78 exercises, 78 getting started, 77 role, 74 Takeaway, 77 ten rules, 76 To-do list, 17–18, 42, 55, 61, 185, 188 To-dos, 16, 36, 83 Tool set, 4, Track record, 137 Triangular thinking, 136–140 bindex.indd 217 exercises, 140 getting started, 139 Takeaway, 140 Truth, 86, 90 U Upside, 190–193, 195–196, 199 Decision, 193 V Value proposition, 45, 48 Values See Beliefs Variables See Ingredient Diagram Vision, 71–73 conversation, 71–72 exercises, 73 getting started, 72 Takeaway, 73 W Warning system, early See Preeminent Metrics What Else?, 62–64 brainstorming, 63 exercises, 64 getting started, 63 Takeaway, 64 Who-Need-When, 181 exercises, 185 getting started, 184 Takeaway, 184 Why? 33–42 Because!!, 39–40 drill down, 37 exercises, 42 getting started, 40 I don’t know, 38–39, 41 Root cause, 37–38 summary of Takeaways, 41 This versus That, 34–36 World of Conclusions, 156 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM bindex.indd 218 2/21/2014 9:32:36 AM [...]... have to translate from a neuroscience discussion to everyday real-world issues What should you expect from this book? You’ll learn that critical thinking isn’t difficult, and you’ll learn how and when to apply it You’ll gain many ideas about where to apply critical thinking in your daily job, for both tactical and strategic problems and decisions You’ll obtain tools to add to your existing critical thinking. .. result of thinking We think when we decide what to eat for lunch, how to meet a project schedule, and what to say during a conversation We think when we drive a car (although, unfortunately, we’re not always thinking about driving) We’re thinking all the time, and although not always filled with valuable thinking, our brains are always in gear Even when sleeping, we’re thinking Critical thinking is thinking. .. the partiality of your thinking; 3 c01.indd 3 2/20/2014 12:40:58 PM 4 Introduction and the Framework for Critical Thinking • a process; and • thinking that uses a tool set Here are the details of each of these: Critical thinking is manual rather than automatic thinking Let’s first take a look at automatic thinking, the kind of thinking we do the most Have you ever driven your car to work but didn’t remember... important, you want to get out of automatic mode and go into manual—that is, critical thinking Critical thinking is purposeful You make a conscious effort to leave automatic mode as you start to consider a certain situation You begin to think a little bit differently using some of the techniques of critical thinking You are very aware about what you are thinking and are thinking purposefully For example,... thinking toolbox and will figure out how to think outside the box and how to get others to do so as well You’ll be able to distinguish automatic from manual thinking and ask questions that generate quality responses What I’ve Learned after Teaching Critical Thinking for Eight Years • Everyone can be a critical thinker Although some people are more inclined to think critically than others and although... the box, scientific, and procedural Odds are that you’ve heard and probably used a few of these terms But what exactly do they mean? Some paraphrase critical thinking as thinking smarter.” I paraphrase it as “headscratching.” Most would agree critical thinking is not our everyday, automatic, not-really -thinking- about-it thinking Critical thinking is: • manual thinking (not automatic); • purposeful;... a database, and coming to conclusions about what the issue is, what you can do about it, or whether you have to escalate it Critical thinking is conducted within a framework and tool set The framework consists of a three-step process The tool set consists of the individual critical thinking techniques used in each step to guide your manual thinking Benefits of Critical Thinking Critical thinking can... others—everyone can improve how he or she thinks when tackling problems • We need to be trained We all have the ability to think critically, but like many skills, we need to be taught to do it • We forget to think We’re in automatic mode most of the time and just plain forget to tell ourselves, “Gee, maybe I should think about this a bit.” I teach critical thinking for a living, yet even I sometimes forget to use... You Should Read a Book Like This Of course, I am biased and think you should read this book To be honest, you would get something out of reading any book on problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking Here’s why: when you read a book related to thinking, it will result in your thinking, possibly about what you are reading related to thinking In doing this, you will most likely pick up at... Use Critical Thinking T he previous chapter outlined some of the benefits of critical thinking With so many advantages, it would seem we should think critically all the time Although critical thinking is always useful and can be applied everywhere, it’s not practical to think this way all the time It’s not only about where you apply critical thinking but also about when you apply it A simple rule to ... problems and decisions You’ll obtain tools to add to your existing critical thinking toolbox and will figure out how to think outside the box and how to get others to so as well You’ll be able to distinguish... your thinking As you use and practice these tools, your problem- solving and decision- making skills will improve This will directly yield higher quality problem solving, decision making, and creative... “headscratching.” Most would agree critical thinking is not our everyday, automatic, not-really -thinking- about-it thinking Critical thinking is: • manual thinking (not automatic); • purposeful; • being